Define
[dɪ'faɪn]
Definition
(verb.) give a definition for the meaning of a word; 'Define `sadness''.
(verb.) determine the nature of; 'What defines a good wine?'.
(verb.) show the form or outline of; 'The tree was clearly defined by the light'; 'The camera could define the smallest object'.
Inputed by Harvey--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To fix the bounds of; to bring to a termination; to end.
(v. t.) To determine or clearly exhibit the boundaries of; to mark the limits of; as, to define the extent of a kingdom or country.
(v. t.) To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly; as, the defining power of an optical instrument.
(v. t.) To determine the precise signification of; to fix the meaning of; to describe accurately; to explain; to expound or interpret; as, to define a word, a phrase, or a scientific term.
(v. i.) To determine; to decide.
Edited by Barbie
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Limit, bound, circumscribe, set bounds to, fix the limits of.[2]. Describe, declare the properties of.[3]. Explain the meaning of, give the signification of.
Inputed by Abner
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Mark_out, limit, designate, specify, eliminate, elucidate, explain, fix,settle, determine, bound
ANT:Confound, confuse, obscure, mystify, misstate, misconceive, misconstrue,misdefine
Typed by Denis
Definition
v.t. to fix the bounds or limits of: to determine with precision: to describe accurately: to fix the meaning of.—adj. Defin′able that may be defined.—n. Define′ment (Shak.) description.—adj. Def′inite defined: having distinct limits: fixed: exact: clear.—adv. Def′initely.—ns. Def′initeness; Defini′tion a defining: a description of a thing by its properties: an explanation of the exact meaning of a word term or phrase.—adj. Defin′itive defining or limiting: positive: final.—n. (gram.) an adjective used to limit the signification of a noun.—adv. Defin′itively.—ns. Defin′itiveness; Defin′itude definitiveness.
Checker: Mimi
Examples
- I cannot precisely define what they expected, but it was something pleasant: not perhaps that day or that month, but at an indefinite future period. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Fear overcame me; I dared not advance, dreading a thousand nameless evils that made me tremble, although I was unable to define them. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- All this I was forced to define and describe by putting cases and making suppositions. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- If what is good in the world depended on our ability to define it we should be hopeless indeed. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- From that night there grew up in my breast a feeling for Peggotty which I cannot very well define. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- The term variety is almost equally difficult to define; but here community of descent is almost universally implied, though it can rarely be proved. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- If I answer that question, I know you'll be at me with half a dozen others, each one harder than the last; and I'm not a going to define my position. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- It was of less immediate practical importance that it frequently defined them wrongly. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- That place was not beyond the limits of my command, which, it had been expressly declared in orders, were not defined. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Now sexual morality is pretty clearly defined for the Commission. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Education is not infrequently defined as consisting in the acquisition of those habits that effect an adjustment of an individual and his environment. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- May it not be defined as a period of about twenty years in a woman's life, and thirty in a man's? Plato. The Republic.
- Every body pretends to feel and tries to describe with the taste and elegance of him who first defined what picturesque beauty was. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Sound waves may be said to consist of a series of condensations and rarefactions, and the distance between two consecutive condensations and rarefactions may be defined as the wave length. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- It is the fact that the aim is thought of as more activity in the same line, without defining continuity of action in reference to results produced. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Dr. Koch, who had srved in the Franco-Prussian War, succeeded in 1876 in obtaining pure cultures of this bacillus and in defining its relation to the dis ease. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- You looked white as the wall; but you only spoke of 'something,' not defining _what_. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Psychologically, the defining characteristic of play is not amusement nor aimlessness. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- This subject matter meant so much that it vitalized the defining and systematizing brought to bear upon it. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- But let me remark, that in defining justice you have yourself used the word 'interest' which you forbade me to use. Plato. The Republic.
- The dynamo is one of the great factors of modern civilization, and its potential name, like that of dynamite, rightly defines its character. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Hanging on the tail of a kite it photographs the face of mother earth, and, acting quicker than the lightning, it catches and defines the path of that erratic flash. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- For method defines the kind of organization in virtue of which science is science. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Inputed by Evelyn